The Davenports
Marquis dazzles in this debut of glitz, glamour, and Jim Crow.
In Chicago in 1910, 19-year-old Olivia Davenport is expected to find a husband, and soon. The elder daughter of the formerly enslaved owner of the Davenport Carriage Company, Olivia is hard-pressed to find a suitor who, like her, is wealthy, educated, and Black. Her parents push her toward a Black Englishman who’s visiting Chicago, but Olivia’s eye catches on a young civil rights leader from Alabama. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Helen, is far more interested in repairing cars than she is in courting, until she meets Olivia’s English suitor. Olivia’s best friend, Ruby, is also under pressure to marry well, preferably to Olivia’s brother, John, but she hates the games she has to play to get his attention. And his attention is increasingly taken up by Amy-Rose, the Davenport sisters’ maid who dreams of owning a salon and crafting her own hair-care products à la Madam C.J. Walker.
Masterfully juggling the four young ladies’ points of view, Marquis highlights the often-untold history of wealthy Blacks in the early 1900s, while also touching on themes of intersectionality, biracialism, and privilege. Readers watch as Olivia’s eyes are opened to the plight of poor Blacks nationwide, and she realizes that her family’s wealth will not fully shield her from the Jim Crow laws spreading northward. Strict historians will note the use of modern terms such as “Black” (capitalized) and “enslaved” rather than the period-accurate “colored” and “slave,” but this modernization is understandable—and, indeed, desirable—in a young-adult novel.
The first in a series, The Davenports is an important story skillfully told by a new author worth watching. While the novel is technically a young-adult romance, readers of all ages would do well to give it a look. Highly recommended.
